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Source Land History
This article contains information about the history of the Source Lands Setting. Calendars To understand History, it is somewhat important to understand measurement of time. Hence, the different calendars in use across these time periods are introduced here. * The Elves used the Eldar Calendar (EC), as did the Eldar (obviously). * The Dwarves originally used the Alatrian Calendar (AC), but stopped using it when their civilization was virtually destroyed. They began using the Dwarven Calendar (DC). * The first humans to invent a Calendar based it on the moon (LC), but it was soon replaced by the Celestial Calendar (CC) in the Westerlands and all of its colonies. Eldar Calendar The Eldar Calendar dates back millions of years, seemingly, and also uses something known as a "Established Standard" - which interestingly, seems to be wrong on every account. For instance, the Eldars have an established day being the length of 33 hours, whereas on Terra, it is in fact, only 24 hours. Naturally, the Eldar also had an adapted version, though the Eldar Calendar is rather complicated. * The Eldar Calendar, as known today, features a number of important milestones, from which those who use it, count the years. For instance, the Elder Calendar counts the day of the Eldar Arrival as a milestone and count each year from then, until much later when the Elves established a new mile-stone, and since many more. Alatrian Calendar The Alatrian Calendar is completely obscure and it is entirely unknown how time was kept with it. There are references in the old texts to some sort of device which was capable of keeping track. It is possible that it was based on some sort of stone-henge that no longer exists. * The Alatrian Calendar had three important milestones; the arrival of the Proto-Dwarves, the Dawn of the Dwarves and the destruction of the Dwarven Empire. Because there is no way to properly create reference patterns between the Alatrian Calendar and the Dwarven Calendar, which superseded it, it is largely unknown how to use it. Dwarven Calendar The Dwarven Calendar was actually subject of war. Unfortunately, the Dwarves that won the conflict were not the ones who had the earliest, nor the most precise calendar. However, it seems to matter little, as there is virtually nothing of interest or importance in recorded Dwarven history since the implementation of the Dwarven Calendar. Lunar Calendar The Lunar Calendar was first used by Nordmarians, and since spread to Talanthia. Being far from ingenious or complicated, incidentally the first Realm of Man, springing from the Elven City in the Rahamra, also used this same system. The Lunar Calendar was far too chaotic to provide completely stable points of reference, however. Celestial Calendar A Calendar based on the movement of Celestial Bodies is not only confusing to the uneducated, but also necessitates the keeping of an actual Calendar, and required decades of observations of the stars to actually design. * The Calendar uses its implementation as its first milestone, and according to this Calendar, the first humans rose up against their creators in the year 307 BCC (Before Celestial Calendar). * The Mithlander Empire was created in 1019 ACC (After Celesital Calendar), and collapsed in 2058 ACC, having lasted over a thousand years. * In 1247 ACC, the Church of the Holy Light was discovered. * In 1309 ACC, Septimus conquered most of the known world, and the new Helionite Church formed behind him. * In 1337 ACC, the Cosmonite Church formed. * In 2100, the Treaty of Estheim (Pax Imperium) was signed in Estheim, and the world effectively entered a new Era, the Post Imperial Era. The Dawn of Time Terra was a barren planet floating in space at some point - or so it is assumed. The breath of life came to Terra, or so the ancient proto-dwarven texts proclaim. Dragons were the first beings on terra known to have obtained sapience, but the dragons themselves speak of many minor civilizations and beings of little consequence that walked the planet, but went extinct. The Arrival of the Eldar The Eldar arrived on Terra - exactly how is unknown, but they claimed to have come from the stars. They established outposts and found that Terra was unlike any other place they had ever known. The Eldar had come in search of places where they could communicate with beings called "the others", who were some sort of important otherworldly beings that granted the Eldar the power they needed for their artifacts (superior technology). The Birth of the Proto-Dwarves The Proto-Dwarves appeared on terra soon after, but they were not truly alive - their existence remains something of a mystery, and the Eldar Texts claim that the Proto-Dwarves were actually "visitors" from another universe, having shifted their consciousness into constructed bodies. It is very likely that the Proto-Dwarves were actually these "Others". Armageddon Something occurred, and the Eldar could no longer contact their brethren and believed themselves alone in the universe. They could also no longer contact the "others" and a massive burst of destructive energy destroyed the artifacts of the Eldar - the Proto-Dwarves said that the Eldar, as a species, had betrayed them, and that the Eldar were responsible for the destruction of their home-world - the Proto-Dwarves went to live outside of the Eldar Outposts and would no longer associate with the Eldar. The First Clash Without the protection of their artifacts, the dragons now sought to destroy the Eldar as they had previously destroyed all other living species that had reached sapience on their planet. They did not, however, initially quarrel with the Proto-Dwarves - the Dragons found the Proto-Dwarves puzzling. The Peace The Eldar suffered significant losses, but so did the dragons, who underestimated the Eldar's ability to readapt their artifacts. There was relative peace with the Eldar and Dragons for some time - some Dragons had been captured, and some Eldar had been enslaved by the Dragons - unknown how, some time later, the first elves walked Terra, and having suffered losses and been distracted, the Dragons had failed to destroy the primitive human species that was starting to evolve. The Time of the Elves The Elves were born with natural magical abilities and did not need the Eldar Artifacts. They had a naturally powerful relationship with the Eldar, and somehow provoked the Proto-Dwarves, now running all of the Eldar Outposts - except one. The Elves would soon all, but forget their roots. The Dawn of the Dwarves The Proto-Dwarves discovered the primitive humans, and one of them used a stolen Eldar Relic to adapt the human body into a form that could better receive the "spirit" of a Proto-Dwarf. Some Proto-Dwarves volunteered to shed their forms and become the first Dwarves - but the form of flesh gave birth to a new perspective for the Dwarves, who soon turned their backs on their old ways, but still went to war with the Elves. The Second Clash The Dwarves were unstoppable - technologically superior to the elves, highly resistant to Elven magic and, while short, also extremely hardy and strong, the Dwarves were butchering the elves by the scores. The Elves made a fickle alliance with the Dragons who scorched the Dwarven settlements, forcing them to flee underground - they responded by almost eradicating the dragons, but eventually even their underground realms fell and only secluded settlements remained. The Age of Man The Elves looked to the same solutions as the Proto-Dwarves had, and sought out the primitive humans, now that their dragon allies were almost gone, they needed new protectors, fearing the return of the Dwarves. They steered the evolution of mankind, with magic, in their own favor, creating mankind as their own slaves. Pre-Imperial Era The written history of mankind begins with the revolution of humans in Northern Rahamra. The Elves and Dwarves used different calendars, and knowledge of accurate time-frames and conversion charts are obscure at best. The First Free Men * ~1103 BCC The First Free Men to live as a people on terra were the Nordmarians, who escaped their Elven Captors - or perhaps were simply let go. It isn't known exactly how the Nordmarians came to flee into the inhospitable Nordmarian Lands, where they met both Dwarves and Giants. They told both of the Elves, who ruled lands further south, and how the Elves had kept them as slaves and subjugated them to cruelties. The Dwarves and Giants were natural enemies, but both also hated the Elves, and they began to plot... The Thunderstone Pact * ~1087 BCC The Dwarves and Giants formulated the Pact of Thunderstone, which the Nordmarians were also a part of, though not in any decision making capacity. They were still guests among the Dwarves and Giants, learning how to exist without the infrastructure of the Elves. Infiltration * ~1054 BCC Some Nordmarians were sent as spies to Elven Cities, causing great confusion when they were occasionally discovered, as it wasn't common knowledge among the many Elves, that Nordmarians even existed, so it was simply assumed that the humans had illegally managed to reproduce, or some Elves had bred more than they were allowed, though ultimately few reacted as they probably should, and the extra slaves were simply kept for the most part. Over the course of the next few hundred years, the Nordmarian DNA was mixed into the generally small human gene-pool, which introduced a new problem to the Elves - suddenly, human and elven DNA had become reproductively compatible, and the wide accepted practice of using humans as pleasure slaves was suddenly a huge problem, causing the appearance of half-breeds. The Storm Callers * ~1041 BCC The network of human and half-breed spies that spread among the ranks of the Elves were known as the Storm-Callers, which was derived from the Thunderstone Pact. They identified each other, by use of various coded phrases, most famously "The Storm is Coming", or simply yelling "FLASH" to which the appropriate response was "Thunder", though these were mainly field-grade identification codes. The Storm Callers targeted humans who were already disgruntled, who were frequently punished and who were not among the favorites of their Elven Masters, as well as those who were particularly power-hungry who served their masters in more administrative tasks. It was a highly brutal and corrupt affair to build this network of spies. The Storm Callers became like a Cult, that over the course of generations attempted to ready themselves for the Great Storm. Raids * ~1032 BCC The Nordmarians did not rest during this period. They frequently raided the coastal Elven Settlements, and this had quite a dramatic effect on the Elves, who believed the Nordmarians to be Orcs, whom Elves hated and feared, even at that time. In the mean-time, Giants fought the Elves on the surface, and tensions rose with the Dwarves, driving the Elven South in the Westerlands, away from the Northern Shores, where they abandoned many settlements. Exactly as the Dwarves had hoped, this resulted in the Elves deploying humans to fight. The Elves trained humans and sent them against various Goblinoid hideouts that had been leaked by Dwarves in secret, claimed to be actual Dwarven Strongholds or Orc Strongholds. Satisfied with their results, of putting hundreds of Goblinoids to the sword, the Elves came to appreciate their new found cannon-fodder, but the Dwarven Agenda of getting the Elves to rely more on Humans, and train them for war, was exactly what they needed to make the humans more susceptible to the idea of rebellion... The Rise of Man * ~307 BCC The Storm Callers finally made their first move, and rose up in the city of Lovien, in the Northern Rahamra, that would later become a sacred city for all humans of the Imperial Faiths, and those following the Teachings of the Holy Light. The Elves of Lovien were outnumbered, 10-to-1 and lived a decadent lifestyle, relying on their human servants for everything. Few elves put up any kind of struggle, and the rest found themselves in chains. It is actually unknown if it was only the Rebel Cell in Lovien that was called "The Storm Callers", or if it was all of them - history seems to remember them sharing a joint identity, but it is perhaps unlikely. The Thieve's Guild * ~305 BCC The Elves had of course discovered the Storm Callers, but referred to them as "The Thieve's Guild" in humor. The Elves had Guilds for everything, and discovered that the riff-raff gang of criminals that were stealing weapons and supplies were seemingly working together systematically, but had not taken the threat seriously, though rumor spread among the Elven Settlements, and many Elven Slave-Owners grew concerned and discovered that they had organized crime in their cities too. It is possible that some Elves suspected that these gangs could be related to each other, but the Elves were under the impression that humans in one city could not at all communicate with humans from another city, so it was ultimately not believed, but the joint identity of the "thieve's guild" was something that spread among the Elves, and was pushed unto the human rebels who eventually accepted the nickname, using it to create another layer of protection around their secret rebel group, though many were legitimately only members of the rebel cells for profit. Unbeknownst, the Thieve's Guild was born this way, and lives on through all ages of the Source Lands Setting. Flames of Rebellion and The Exodus * ~289 BCC Many humans left Lovien, and made their own settlements in regions the Elves had deemed "inhospitable", and quite a few remembered the legendary tales of the Westerlands, across the narrow sea, where human ancestors had fought Orcs and Goblins, and where abandoned Elven cities lay in the north, and where their own brethren were still enslaved in the south - and more importantly, where their Dwarven Allies lived, and where the Nordmarians had originally come from, so many pushed North, and one by one, the Elven Settlements began to fall... The Sundar City-States * ~100 BCC Having settled in some of the most stable climates in the Northern Half of the Rahamra, some human realms experienced constant and unending growth - though this was not true for many of the people who had chosen to flee to other Continents, whom generally lived in hardship and uncivilized conditions. * Lovien itself was located in the middle of the Sakharan Desert, and prospered for some time, but soon it was all but abandoned, little more than a religious site, that was visited by pilgrims. * The Sundar Lands, later to be known as the Sakharan Empire, were found further to the East and were truly bountiful lands, that resulted in the formation of powerful city-states, some of which eventually spread west along the Northern Coast of the continent of Rahamra. The Rise of the Dark One * ~400 ACC Humans now spanned a large area, but some sort of cataclysmic event took place in Lovien around this time. The event has since been pinned on this Satanic Figure known as "The Dark One" in history, though all the different Imperial Faiths seemingly disagree on exactly what the "Dark One" is, but it is known that after the this event, Lovien became lost to humans, who literally did known where it was anymore, as it was already a closely guarded secret because it was a holy-site in the desert and some sort of Undead Empire subsequently rose out the Sakharan Desert and became the Sakharan Empire, worshippers of "The Dark One" seemingly. * The Sakharan Empire still exists, but deny ever having worshiped the Dark One, and have a very different view on those events. * The only thing that is known for a definate fact about this event, is that after The Rise of the Dark One, Elves were no longer immortal, and neither were Dwarves. * While the Dwarves tend not to believe that their loss of immortality has anything to do with the Rise of the Dark One, the Elves firmly believe that it was a faction of Eldar who had plotted against them with the humans, and caused this to happen to them, and have since been seeking a way to reverse what was done, despite still being ridiculously long-lived. The Carnala Kingdom ~700 ACC Unknown exactly when, the barbarians of the Westerlands had eventually managed to form some civilized regions - including the semi-primitive Kingdom of Carnala, named after the Carnala River that runs through a significant portion of the Westerlands. Geographically, this Kingdom was inside what would alter be the borders of Estheim, and had not spread south, to the coast, yet. * The Carnala Kingdom had discovered an Elven Outpost in the Westerland, something that had initially been assumed not to exist - the Elves had revealed the locations of other outposts without much coercing, but this one had remained a mystery - the Kingdom desired the Elven Outpost for themselves, hoping to make a second "Holy City, though this did not happen, largely, it is believed, because the small Outpost was hardly comparable to Lovien. * Many unsuccessful skirmishes were lead against the outpost, and finally the attempted military conquests resulted in catastrophe when decadent Rahamrans sailed across the sea and vassalized the Carnala Kingdom. * A Vassal-State of the City State of Mosul, the Carnala Kingdom was made to adapt to the different culture, but ultimately, this only strengthened their desire to conquer their Elven neighbors, and the balance of power soon shifted, with Mosul becoming the Vassal of the Carnala Kingdom instead. The Imperial Era The Imperial Era began rather suddenly, when a the decadent culture of the Rahamran City-States met with steely resolve of hardy and primitive Westerlanders. Creation of the Empire * 1019 ACC The, at the time, Imperator, named Cassius Mithlander, a half-elf and half-Nordmarian former mercenary, lead a large force against the Elves, but chose not to surrender the outpost, building instead, his own Kingdom of Estheim - this was the first step in creating the Westerland Empire - but at that time, it was called the Carnala Empire, and Estheim remained a Vassal of the Carnala Kingdom - but this didn't exactly last long, as Cassius had all the soldiers and nearing the end of his days, he declared himself Emperor of all the Westerlands and began the conquest that would take several generations of his family to complete. * The many following Mithlander Generations were known as the Dragon Lords. The Mithlander family had somehow forged an alliance with a Dragon. Little is known of how this actually works, as none of the accounts really match up - many believed to be propaganda from either side, but Imperial History teaches that the Mithlanders had a Golden Dragon that they rode into battle. * The Mithlanders did not get along well with the Dwarves at all. There was severe distrust between the Dwarven people and the Mithlander Empire for the first many generations. The Nordmarians managed to broker a fragile alliance between the two factions, but the Dwarves would never come to like the Mithlanders. * The most famous of the Mithlander Dragon Emperors was Septimus Mithlander, who is largely credited with forming the actual Empire. The Church of the Holy Light * ~1247 ACC The Empire spanned a great area - it was centered on the South-Eastern Shores of the Westerlands, and the North-Eastern Shores of the Rahamra, but it had also extended to the South-Western of the Continent of Estrel, where a massive Elven City had been reclaimed. * Eventually, there was a schism in government, and the Sultan of Nefera, Ashkan Mihran, had somehow found his own patron that he believed was enough to protect him from the wrath of a Dragon-Emperor, though it is largely unknown what this was, though various historical documents discuss this issue. * The schism in government had been coming for some time - the Sultanate of Nefera was not pleased with being under the thumb of the Mithlander Dynasty and wanted autonomous control of their lands, and they used religion to solidify their cultural differences as wholly incompatible. * The Church of the Holy Light seemed to revere Magic as a holy energy, which was completely contrary to the way it was viewed by the Helionite Church, that saw magic as a natural and volatile source of power, but ultimately dangerous as it was the primary means for "The Dark One" to interact with the world. * The two churches, ironically, agreed on maintaining severe control over magic use, restricting it heavily, as both feared "The Dark One" tremendously. * There are still vague existing accounts of the Mithlanders going to war against Nefera, and some particularly sensitive documents claim that the Mithlander Dragon was injured and crashed down on the Island of Tamera. The Anarchy * ~1250 A period of time immediately after the first Neferan War, the Empire virtually collapsed with their Emperor absent due to campaigns of war. It was rumored that the Emperor had actually died in the field, not from injuries, but from old age, and a succession war began in the Empire. * Contrary to what is believed by many, Septimus fought a very long campaign against his contenders before he eventually won, and there are some rumors fluctuating that Septimus was actually an illegitimate heir (a bastard).